Here in the deep south where I live you hear it all the time. "Nowhere in the bible does it say anything about.." and then some supposedly non-biblical, probably satanic, and usually Catholic religious practice is inserted.
Infant baptism is the classic example. We are supposed to infer that because baptism of infants is not explicit in Scripture, its practice is counter to the will of God and therefor not to be permitted. In most cases, especially when it come to Catholic beliefs and practices, the inference goes as far as to claim not only ignorance of the truth, but intentional rejection of the truth for diabolic, anti-Christian purposes.
Through ignorance or intentionally, the argument that something has to be explicit in scripture for it to be an accepted Christian practice is usually hypocritical. The vast majority of those who would argue against supposed "non-biblical" Catholic practices like infant baptism and veneration of relics ignore the many inferred references to these practices in Scripture while ignoring the lack of exlicit reference to their own supposedly "Scriptural" beliefs and practices.
For example, "Nowhere in the bible does it say anything about...."
- Confessing sins directly to God in the privacy of one's own heart
- Recieving forgivness for sins directly from God
- Accepting Jesus Christ into your heart as your personal Lord and savior
- Altar calls
- Adult only baptism
- Prayer journals
- Essential doctrines and non-essential doctrines
- Scripture being the only source of religous truth
- Women clergy or pastors
- Baptism as a symbol of faith in Jesus and obedience to God
- The sufficiency of faith in Jesus Christ for entry into heaven
- Completele abstinance from alcohol
- Symbolic communion
- The Trinity
Seriously, the Trinity is nowhere in scripture.
And that's really the point. Many non-Catholic Christians who would argue the lack of scriptural basis for many Catholic beliefs do so not only out of ignorance of how many supporting inferences are present but in ignorance of the lack of scriptural references to their own traditions and beliefs.
The last one cracks me up.
-Tim-
I'd like to add here the practice of closing one's eyes during prayer.
ReplyDeleteI haven't done a very detailed search on this, and I'm happy to be corrected, but from what I recall, the closing of one's eyes is a metaphor for hardening your heart.
Why don't people look up to the sky when they pray, instead of closing their eyes when they pray?
Again, I've puzzled over this but am happy to be corrected by any scriptural verse that tells us to close our eyes when we pray (instead of looking up to heaven).
I searched for "eyes" in the NAB using an online concordance. The word appears 460 times in 55 books. The results of the search can be found at http://japhy.perlmonk.org/bible/nab-search.cgi?query=eyes&mode=whole
ReplyDeleteI browsed through briefly and didn't notice a reference to closing one's eyes in the context of prayer but clearly see the metaphorical reference to hardening one's heart in Mark 8:18 and 8:32-25.
Either way, I find meditating harder with my eyes open. Staring at the ceiling tiles in the adoration chapel is pretty boring too.
-Tim-
Hi Tim,
ReplyDeleteYup. The point I was trying to make is:
- closing one's eyes while praying is unbiblical (or even contrary to biblical practice if it symbolizes hardening of the heart)
- if one claims to follow only what's in the bible, then one should look up to the sky when in prayer as exemplified by many instances of Christ during prayer: don't close your eyes!
But sola scriptura folks don't look to the sky. Rather they close their eyes (sometimes rather tightly, almost crunching their eyelids). Why? On what scriptural basis?
There is a scriptural verse where Paul tells people to raise their hands in prayer. This is the basis for Pentecostals and Charismatics for raising their hands while in prayer. (I got no problem there).
Again, I'm no expert and always happy to be corrected.
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